Tension element



March 15, 1966 s, STElNBERG 3,239,903

TENSION ELEMENT Filed Feb. 13, 1964 IN VENTOR.

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United States Patent 3 Claims. (c1. 24--146) It is well known that boots and in particular ski boots must be very tightly laceable to comply with the requirements of the new ski technique. It is also well known that, if the shoe laces pass through, the hooks and the eyelets, having a restricted base portion, the tension exerted on the hook or on the eyelet causes the leather of the shoe uppers to be lifted, thereby having notches and deformations which damage the shoe uppers and prevent the shoe from completely adhering to the instep.

The object of the present invention is to eliminate the above mentioned disadvantages by having the hooks or eyelets of the lacing system provided with a prolongated tail portion or extension projecting in the direction of traction to provide for an increased supporting seat for the hook or the eyelet and to realize a resistant element which, pressing on the shoe upper, opposes to the lifting force course to an arrangement which opposes to the deforma- Since the eyelet or the hook, in virtue of its increased supporting base seat, may be subjected to a larger tensile stress it may be useful, although not necessary, to have recourse to an arrangement which opposes to the deformation of the eyelet or hook during application of the stress. This arrangement may consist of connection means between the two superposed strip portions forming the hook or eyelet, said connecting means being formed with at least a tongue member projecting from one of the superposed strip portions and with at least a recessed seat provided in the other strip portion and adapted to be engaged by the bent tongue member. The position of this connecting means is subordinated to the number and to the position of the tongue members. If there is provided a pair of tongue members, these ones are preferably disposed in a middle position with respect to the strip portions, said position being also in the same plane as the axis of the foot member to be attached to the upper. The tongue members may however be provided in other positions as Well. A preferable one would be at the end of the inner strip portion, whereby the advantage would consist in this case in that the tongue members could have a greater length and could be bent to form a double right angle or a U-shape.

Should there be provided a single tongue member, then this one could be disposed in the middle of the inner strip portion and pass through a corresponding opening provided in the curved part of the lower strip to be bent downwards against said last one. This last arrangement would have the advantage of a lesser waste of material since the length of the metallic band would not have to be increased to form the lateral depending members.

The accompanying drawing diagrammatically shows by way of example only and in no limitative sense, two embodiments of a tension element for lacing boots, one of said embodiment being in the form of an eyelet and the other one in the form of a hook, both of them being however provided at their base with the resistant extension forming the main part of the invention. The two superposed strip portions forming the eyelet or the hook may be provided with means connecting together said strips.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an eyelet which may be applied to the shoe upper by means of a conventional an- Patented Mar. 15, 1966 nular foot portion and which is provided with the resistant extension of the invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of another element in the form of a hook and also having the resistive extension of the invention.

FIG. 3 shows an eyelet as the one of FIG. 1, which has a lace passing therethrough and subjected to traction.

FIG. 4 shows an eyelet as the one of FIG. 1 which has two lateral tongue members connecting the two superposed strip portions.

FIG. 5 shows the same eyelet as in FIG. 1 with the connecting tongue members in a different position.

FIG. 6 shows an eyelet having a single middle tongue member.

FIG. 7 is a section along A-B of FIG. 6.

FIG. 8 is a plan view on the two marginal portions of the upper having several hook-like tension elements (FIG. 2) applied thereto and subjected to tension by means of a zigzag lace.

As clearly illustrated in the drawing, the tension element, which may be in the form of an eyelet 10 (FIG. 1) or of a hook 11 (FIG. 2) is characterized in that it has a resistant extension portion which extends in the direction of traction and which is disposed at the same level as the lower strip portion of the tension element so as to be supported on and press against the surface of the upper. The eyelet 10 as well as the hook 11 have an annular foot portion 13 adapted to be fixed to the upper, the middle hole of said foot portion being closed at its upper side by the inner strip 14.

The FIGURES 3 and 8 clearly show the position and the operative function of the extension 12 which projects parallelly to the support plane of the tension element on the side, the traction is exerted at, by means of the lace 15, said extension 12 coming into contact with the surface of the upper 16 so as to provide for a larger support surface of the tension element and, at the same time, so as to provide for an advantageous reaction which opposes to the lifting or detaching of the hook from the upper at 13 when the traction of the lace 15 becomes too strong.

It is thus possible not only to achieve that the tensile stress is distributed on a larger support surface but also that the end of this extension portion 12 by pressing on the uppers, prevents the eyelet 10 or the hook 11 from rotating about the respective foot portion 13. The annular eyelet 10 of FIG. 1 is furthermore considerably reinforced in virtue of the fact that the extension '12 opposes to the unrolling of strip portion 14 even when a strong stress is applied.

The two marginal portions 16 and 17 of the upper remain therefore unwarped even when the exerted traction is quite strong.

To avoid every possibility of having the eyelet 10 be deformed even when it consists of a fairly weak plate, it can be used the arrangement of FIGS. 4 to 7. In particular the inner strip portion 14 may be provided with two lateral tongue members 20 projecting outwards and the underlying lower strip portion 12' may be provided with recessed seats 20' disposed just below said tongue members 20 so as to have these last ones entered and bent into said seats. This arrangement implies that the tongue members 20' are provided in a middle position (FIG. 4). They may be disposed in the middle portion of the eyelet base in a state of perfect balance. With this arrangement the fastening may not be impaired or displaced even if considerable stresses are to be applied in different directions.

A modified arrangement is shown in FIG. 5 wherein the tongue members 21 are shifted to the end of the inner strip portion 14. In this case, too, there are recesses 21 provided in the lower strip portion 12', said recesses being adapted to receive the tongue members 221 suitably bent therein. In this arrangement the tongue members 21 may be longer than the seats or recesses 21' and may therefore be bent a second time against the lower outer face of the lower strip portion 12'. This particular arrangement makes the fastening even more strong and compensates for the disadvantage due to the uncentercd position of the tongue members. It should be noted that the double bending of the tongues 21 is possible in this last case thanks to the fact that the tongues do not interfere with the foot portion 13.

FIG. 6 shows an embodiment wherein there is a single middle tongue member 22 disposed on the prolongation of the inner strip portion 14 and an opening 22 correspondingly disposed at the base of the curved portion 10. When the strip portions are drawn nearer to each other the tongue portion 22 will pass through said opening 22' and then be bent downwards, thereby making the fastening tighter. The reciprocal engagement of the two strip portions forming the eyelet may be also realized when the tension element does not exhibit any extension 12.

The tension element must not necessarily have the shapes which have been illustrated by way of example in the drawing, namely the shape of an eyelet or of a hook. The novel part of the invention merely consists in the provision of the flat extension portion 12 projecting in the direction of traction at the level of the uppers surface. This extension 12 also facilitates the feeding of the eyelets and of the hooks to the machines which automatically apply said elements to the shoes or boots.

Whenever required for technical or aesthetic reasons, the end of the extension 12, which is the part exerting the strongest action, may have a profile which differs from the illustrated one.

What is claimed is:

1. In a lacing system for a boot, a tension element adapted to receive and prevent movement of a lace tensioned in one direction, means disposed directly below and rigidly connected to said tension element for connecting said tension element to a boot, a generally flat extension connected to said tension element and having an end disposed remotely from said tension element and said means in the one direction, said extension providing a large support surface for said tension element to prevent deformation of a boot when a tension is applied to the lace in the one direction, and said end of said extension engageable against the surface of a boot when connected thereon to prevent rotation of said tension element about said means.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said tension element comprises an eyelet including a lower strip portion having two recessed seats disposed on opposite sides thereof, a curved upper portion integrally connected at one end to said lower strip portion, an inner strip portion having an end integrally connected to said upper portion, said inner strip portion being disposed adjacently above said lower strip portion and having two extending lateral tongue members, each of said tongue members being connectively disposed in one of said recessed seats of said lower strip portion to prevent said tension element from being deformed when subjected to tension.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said tension element comprises an eyelet including a lower strip portion connected to said fiat extension at one end, a curved upper portion integrally connected to said lower strip portion opposite said extension and having an opening therein, an inner strip portion having a first end integrally conneeted to said upper portion remote from said opening, said inner strip being disposed adjacently above said lower strip portion and having a tongue member extending from a second end, said tongue member being connectively disposed through said opening in said curved upper portion to provide a strengthened tension element.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 77,029 4/ 1868 Gilbert 24146 320,260 5/1885 Knuth 24-121 483,764 10/1892 Johnson 24-121 664,814 12/1900 Manes 24236 875,714 1/1908 Leighton 24237 891,811 5/1908 Brooks 24145 1,102,077 5/1914 Riddle 24146 3,197,833 8/1965 Puthuff 24146 FOREIGN PATENTS 25,037 1903 Great Britain.

WILLIAM FELDMAN, Primary Examiner.

BOBBY R. GAY, Examiner. 

1. IN A LACING SYSTEM FOR A BOOT, A TENSION ELEMENT ADAPTED TO RECEIVE AND PREVENT MOVEMENT OF A LACE TENSIONED IN ONE DIRECTION, MEANS DISPOSED DIRECTLY BELOW AND RIGIDLY CONNECTED TO SAID TENSION ELEMENT FOR CONNECTING SAID TENSION ELEMENT TO A BOOT, A GENERALLY FLAT EXTENSION CONNECTED TO SAID TENSION ELEMENT AND HAVING AN END DISPOSED REMOTELY FROM SAID TENSION ELEMENT AND SAID MEANS IN THE ONE DIRECTION, SAID EXTENSION PROVIDING A LARGE SUPPORT SURFACE FOR SAID TENSION ELEMENT TO PREVENT DEFORMATION OF A BOOT WEHEN A TENSION IS APPLIED TO THE LACE IN THE ONE DIRECTION, AND SAID END OF SAID EXTENSION ENGAGEABLE AGAINST THE SURFACE OF A BOOT WHEN CONNECTED THEREON TO PREVENT ROTATION OF SAID TENSION ELEMENT ABOUT SAID MEANS. 